Alaska moose head donated to amphib Anchorage

May. 7, 2013 - 02:52PM
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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — An Anchorage man has donated a trophy moose head and antlers to the Navy’s newest warship.

Lex Patten told the Anchorage Daily News that his gift to the USS Anchorage pays tribute to his late father, Allen Patten, a World War II Navy veteran.

The shoulder mount was donated to the ship before its departure from Anchorage on Monday.

The warship is an amphibious transport dock that was in the city’s port for its commissioning ceremony Saturday.

Patten’s father was assigned to the battleship Nevada during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Allen Patten was later transferred to the aircraft carrier Lexington before it was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea. He also served on the USS Enterprise and moved to Alaska in 1962 after retiring from the Navy.

Lex Patten said he shot the moose in 1990 during the last moose hunt he had with his father, who died in 2004.

“He insisted on packing out the antlers, about a mile, and he did,” the son said. “He was 73 at the time.”

The moose head, with a 65-inch antler spread, is among several Alaska wild animal trophies donated to the USS Anchorage by Alaskans. It was previously displayed at the Sportsman’s Warehouse store in Anchorage.

Lex Patten said he wasn’t sure where the moose head would be displayed on board the ship.